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Abstract:

This article examines the role in Irish politics of parties other than the three "permanent" ones with a view to filling a recognised gap in political research. Minor parties are grouped into four loose categories on the basis of comparative studies of party systems: nationalist, agrarian, left-wing and right-wing parties. Following a profile over a 67-year period, the characteristics of minor parties are examined. The most important category in electoral terms, that of agrarian parties, consists mainly of parties that sought to mobilise the electorate on a new, alternative political issue. Nationalist and left-wing parties, by contrast, typically sought to challenge existing parties on traditional issues, alleging that the latter had deserted the causes they had originally claimed to serve. The right-wing category consists of parties which related in more diverse ways to the established party system: some sought to mobilise voters on alternative political issues, some sought to publicise a cause even if there was little prospect of electoral success (a type of motivation also to be found in the nationalist and left-wing categories) and some constituted essentially machinery of convenience for individuals.